Some wireless networks are pre-planned and centrally-controlled. A single provider usually organizes all of the wireless nodes and installs the infrastructure. Operationally, centralized manager agents have access to a wealth of knowledge about how the wireless network is functioning. Consequently, such pre-planned and centrally-controlled wireless networks can avoid or rapidly respond to the problems that typify wireless networks, such as poor signal coverage, interference, channel reuse, communication routing, and so forth.
Ad hoc networks, on the other hand, do not usually involve significant pre-planning or centralized control. One or a few wireless nodes are often established by individuals. These individuals activate their respective wireless nodes, which are designed to automatically interoperate with other wireless nodes. However, these wireless nodes are designed to directly interact with only a few other wireless nodes, such as neighbor nodes. Consequently, because of a lack of higher-level coordination, ad hoc wireless networks are generally more susceptible to traditional wireless network problems.